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About Billy Bowers

Billy Bowers’ interest in music began early in Daytona Beach, FL where he sang in the church choir until he found out rehearsal was every Saturday morning. Unable to earn enough by mowing lawns to buy a set of drums, Billy was temporarily stymied in his attempt to perform the late 50s and early 60s music he’d come to enjoy.

But fate intervened when a family friend gave Billy a second-hand guitar. From that point he began to play every spare moment, stopping only at his mother Betty’s insistence or when he fell asleep, guitar in hand. Billy soaked up everything he could from Elvis, Ricky Nelson, the Beatles, Rolling Stones, and especially seminal folk-rockers the Byrds.

When a high school buddy turned Billy on to B.B. King, he began his lifelong love affair with the blues. And hearing Daytona Beach contemporaries Gregg and Duane Allman perform for the first time was inspiration for Billy’s lifelong musical career.

As an in-demand guitarist Billy has worked with Florida bands including the Roosters, Curtiss Williss Band, Mike Shackleford Band, Woody Brothers, and Worldwide HooDoo, and has performed live and recorded with many more.

Fellow musician Neil Dixon paid high praise when he pointed across the room and confided, “Do you know who that is? That’s Billy Bowers—the best guitarist in northeast Florida!”

Currently working as a solo artist, Billy performs his own compositions as well as material by artists like the Eagles, Taj Mahal, Eric Clapton, Allman Brothers, Grateful Dead, and Jimmy Buffett. Known for his lightning fretwork and distinctive “sandpaper” voice, Billy regularly draws crowds up and down the First Coast.